But on

it is of deliberation, but not of direction. the other side, who knoweth not, that time is truly compared to a stream, that carrieth down fresh and pure waters into that salt sea of corruption which environeth all human actions? And therefore, if man shall not by his industry, virtue, and policy, as it were with the oar, row against the stream and inclination of time; all institutions and ordinances, be they never so pure, will corrupt and degenerate. But not to handle this matter common-place like, I would only ask, why the civil state should be purged and restored by good and wholesome laws, made every third or fourth year in parliament assembled; devising remedies as fast as time breedeth mischief: and contrariwise the ecclesiastical state should still continue upon the dregs of time, and receive no alteration now for these five-and-forty years and more? If any man shall object, that if the like intermission had been used in civil causes also, the error had not been great: surely the wisdom of the kingdom hath been otherwise in experience for three hundred years space at the least. But if it be said to me, that there is a difference between civil causes and ecclesiastical, they may as well tell me that churches and chapels need no reparations, though castles and houses do: whereas commonly, to speak the truth, dilapidations of the inward and spiritual edifications of the Church of God are in all times as great as the outward and material. Sure I am that the very word and style of reformation used by our Saviour, ab initio non fuit sic, was applied to Church matters, and those of the highest nature, concerning the law moral.

Nevertheless, he were both unthankful and unwise, that would deny but that the Church of England, during the time of Queen Elizabeth, of famous memory, did flourish. If I should compare it with foreign churches, I would rather the comparison should be in the virtues, than, as some make it, in the defects; rather, I say, as between the vine and the olive, which should be most fruitful; and not as between the briar and the thistle, which should be most

unprofitable. For that reverence should be used to the Church, which the good sons of Noah used to their father's nakedness; that is, as it were to go backwards, and to help the defects thereof, and yet to dissemble them. And it is to be acknowledged, that scarcely any Church, since the primitive Church, yielded, in like number of years and latitude of country, a greater number of excellent preachers, famous writers, and grave governors. But for the discipline and orders of the Church, as many, and the chiefest of them, are holy and good; so yet, if St. John were to indite an epistle to the Church of England, as he did to them of Asia, it would sure have the clause; habeo adversus te pauca. And no more for this point, saving, that as an appendix thereto it is not amiss to touch that objection, which is made to the time, and not to the matter; pretending, that if reformation were necessary, yet it were not now seasonable at your Majesty's first entrance: yet Hippocrates saith, Si quid moves, a principio move: and the wisdom of all ́examples do shew, that the wisest princes, as they have ever been the most sparing in removing or alteration of servants and officers upon their coming in; so for removing of abuses and enormities, and for reforming of laws, and the policy of their states, they have chiefly sought to ennoble and commend their beginnings therewith; knowing that the first impression with people continueth long, and when men's minds are most in expectation and suspense, then are they best wrought and managed. And therefore it seemeth to me, that as the spring of nature, I mean the spring of the year, is the best time for purging and medicining the natural body, so the spring of kingdoms is the most proper season for the purging and rectifying of politic bodies.

There remaineth yet an object, rather of suspicion than of reason; and yet such as I think maketh a great impression in the minds of very wise and well-affected persons; which is, that if way be given to mutation, though it be in taking away abuses, yet it may so acquaint men with sweetness of change,

as it will undermine the stability even of that which is sound and good. This surely had been a good and true allegation in the ancient contentions and divisions between the people and the senate of Rome; where things were carried at the appetites of multitudes, which can never keep within the compass of any moderation: but these things being with us to have an orderly passage, under a king who hath a royal power and approved judgment, and knoweth as well the measure of things as the nature of them; it is surely a needless fear. For they need not doubt but your majesty, with the advice of your council, will discern what things are intermingled like the tares amongst the wheat, which have their roots so enwrapped and entangled, as the one cannot be pulled up without endangering the other; and what are mingled but as the chaff and the corn, which need but a fan to sift and sever them. So much therefore for the first point, of no reformation to be admitted at all.

For the second point, that there should be but one form of discipline in all churches, and that imposed by necessity of a commandment and prescript out of the word of God; it is a matter volumes have been compiled of, and therefore cannot receive a brief redargution. I for my part do confess, that in revolving the Scriptures I could never find any such thing but that God had left the like liberty to the Church government, as he had done to the civil government; to be varied according to time, and place, and accidents, which nevertheless his high and divine providence doth order and dispose. For all civil governments are restrained from God unto the general grounds of justice and manners; but the policies and forms of them are left free: so that monarchies and kingdoms, senates and seignories, popular states, and communalties, are lawful, and where they are planted ought to be maintained inviolate.

So likewise in Church matters, the substance of doctrine is immutable; and so are the general rules of government: but for rites and ceremonies, and for

the particular hierarchies, policies, and disciplines of churches, they be left at large. And therefore it is good we return unto the ancient bounds of unity in the Church of God; which was, one faith, one baptism; and not, one hierarchy, one discipline; and that we observe the league of Christians, as it is penned by our Saviour; which is in substance of doctrine this: He that is not with us, is against✨us: but in things indifferent, and but of circumstance, this; He that is not against us, is with us. In these things, so as the general rules be observed; that Christ's flock be fed; that there be a succession in bishops and ministers, which are the prophets of the New Testament; that there be a due and reverent use of the power of the keys; that those that preach the gospel, live of the gospel; that all things tend to edification; that all things be done in order and with decency, and the like: the rest is left to the holy wisdom and spiritual discretion of the master builders and inferior builders in Christ's Church; as it is excellently alluded by that father that noted, that Christ's garment was without seam; and yet the Church's garment was of divers colours: and thereupon setteth down for a rule; in veste varietas sit, scissura non sit.

In which variety, nevertheless, it is a safe and wise course to follow good examples and precedents; but then by the rule of imitation and example to consider not only which are best, but which are the likeliest; as namely, the government of the Church in the purest times of the first good emperors that embraced the faith. For the times of persecution, before temporal princes received our faith, as they were excellent times for doctrine and manners, so they be improper and unlike examples of outward government and policy. And so much for this point: now to the particular points of controversies, or rather of reformation.

CIRCUMSTANCES IN THE GOVERNMENT
OF BISHOPS.

FIRST therefore, for the government of bishops, I for my part, not prejudging the precedents of other reformed churches, do hold it warranted by the word of God, and by the practice of the ancient Church in the better times, and much more convenient for kingdoms, than parity of ministers and government by synods. But then farther, it is to be considered, that the Church is not now to plant or build; but only to be pruned from corruption, and to be repaired and restored in some decays.

For it is worth the noting, that the Scripture saith, Translato sacerdotio, necesse est ut et legis fiat translatio. It is not possible, in respect of the great and near sympathy between the state civil and the state ecclesiastical, to make so main an alteration in the Church, but it would have a perilous operation upon the kingdoms; and therefore it is fit that controversy be in peace and silence.

But there be two circumstances in the administration of bishops, wherein, I confess, I could never be satisfied; the one, the sole exercise of their authority; the other, the deputation of their authority.

For the first, the bishop giveth orders alone, excommunicateth alone, judgeth alone. This seemeth to be a thing almost without example in good government, and therefore not unlikely to have crept in in the degenerate and corrupt times. We see the greatest kings and monarchs have their councils. There is no temporal court in England of the higher sort where the authority doth rest in one person. The king's bench, common-pleas, and the exchequer, are benches of a certain number of judges. The chancellor of England hath an assistance of twelve masters of the chancery. The master of the wards hath a council of the court: so hath the chancellor of the duchy. In the exchequer-chamber, the lord treasurer